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T-Bone Burnett
Do you know how long it has been since T-Bone Burnett has released an album of his own? I do. It’s almost fifteen years, and I’ve spent a good deal of that time checking record bins and lists of new releases waiting for something new to appear from him. Now that it’s here, I cannot say I’m surprised to discover that T-Bone Burnett’s new album is unlike anything else he has previously released.
Maybe the change is because he was influenced by a few of the artists he produced (Cassandra Wilson, Elvis Costello, etc.), or maybe he was inspired by some of his soundtrack work (“O Brother Where Art Thou” and “I Walk the Line” were both created under his guidance). Either way, the change is both profound and startling.
In the past, Burnett’s work displayed a keen awareness of Americana, with an underpinning of pop structures that made his music both unique and contemporary. On “The True False Identity,” Burnett seems to be unconcerned with pop, instead relying on his own instincts to provide the sonic palette. The result is an album unlike any other that I have heard. Each song on this collection plays like an aural depiction of a subconscious thought, structured to follow the whimsical paranoia of Burnett’s inner voice. “Fear Country,” “I’m Going on a Long Journey,” “Earlier Baghdad,” and almost every other track here has a sense of underlying menace that is offset by a nearly playful lyricism. “Palestine, Texas” is flat-out absurd, with a ‘name game’ rhyme-ology that can make you laugh out loud, albeit uncomfortably (“Frank who is swank robbed a bank with a tank for a prank…”).
Structurally, almost all songs here share an even-paced, loping rhythm and dark, film-noir-esque arrangements that are perfectly suited to Burnett’s wry voice. Chord changes are minimal, as if any change in the tonal presentation would interrupt the authenticity of the mood. “Seven Times Hotter Than Fire” sits on one chord until the end of each verse, where the band continually modulates to build on the tension inherent in the words. Lyrically, “The True False Identity” is both confounding and entertaining, suggesting Bob Dylan at his most mystifying. Burnett also shares Dylan’s penchant for oblique moralizing and judgmental observation. For example, check out this line from “Blinded By the Darkness,” which Burnett talk-sings over a lava bed of clanking percussion and buzzed-out guitar noise; “Do we want to inject the concept of sin into the constitution? Is this really necessary?....Shouldn’t it be left to the laws of God and to the laws of nature? Can we trust this to the legislature?”
Conceptually, “The True False Identity” is no easy ride, but it rewards multiple listens. I personally plan to spend a lot of time listening to this CD, but I hope I don’t have wait another fifteen years to discover what comes next.
Grade: 
 
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